Aetiology and outcome in hospitalized cardiac arrest patients.

Aims: To study aetiologies of in-hospital cardiac arrests (IHCAs) and their association with 30-day survival.

Methods and results: Observational study with data from national registries. Specific aetiologies (n = 22) of IHCA patients between April 2018 and December 2020 were categorized into cardiac vs. non-cardiac and six main aetiology categories: myocardial ischemia, other cardiac causes, pulmonary causes, infection, haemorrhage, and other non-cardiac causes. Main endpoints were proportions in each aetiology, 30-day survival, and favourable neurological outcome (Cerebral Performance Category scale 1-2) at discharge. Among, 4320 included IHCA patients (median age 74 years, 63.1% were men), approximate 50% had cardiac causes with a 30-day survival of 48.4% compared to 18.7% among non-cardiac causes (P < 0.001). The proportion in each category were: myocardial ischemia 29.9%, pulmonary 21.4%, other cardiac causes 19.6%, other non-cardiac causes 11.6%, infection 9%, and haemorrhage 8.5%. The odds ratio (OR) for 30-day survival compared to myocardial ischemia for each category were: other cardiac causes OR 1.48 (CI 1.24-1.76); pulmonary causes OR 0.36 (CI 0.3-0.44); infection OR 0.25 (CI 0.18-0.33); haemorrhage OR 0.22 (CI 0.16-0.3); and other non-cardiac causes OR 0.56 (CI 0.45-0.69). IHCA caused by myocardial ischemia had the best favourable neurological outcome while those caused by infection had the lowest OR 0.06 (CI 0.03-0.13).

Conclusion: In this nationwide observational study, aetiologies with cardiac and non-cardiac causes of IHCA were evenly distributed. IHCA caused by myocardial ischemia and other cardiac causes had the strongest associations with 30-day survival and neurological outcome.